I Love Cake
by amandajbruce
Summary: In which three small words cause a bit of a problem for Oliver.


A/N: This story is brought to you because I was inspired by a rerun of an episode of That 70s Show. Some ideas just beg to be used. I'd have to set this right before the Oliver and Joanie break up episode. And, I know that I've been writing "missing moments" for season two, but this idea just would not go away, and I figured, why hold on to it, just post it. I hope you guys like it.

I Love Cake

Oliver struggled under the weight of the metal pole Joanie had asked him to put in place.

"Are you sure this is how it goes?" he asked her.

"Oliver, it looks just like the picture." She shoved the paper in his face while he pushed one end of the metal into the slot she indicated. "See? It fits."

"Okay, okay." Oliver grudgingly realized his girlfriend knew what she was doing. He still did not understand why they were in her garage in the sweltering heat attempting to put her dad's complete home gym back together.

Joanie set the paper down and began to snap the bench into place. "I'm not so sure that gym equipment that just snaps in place is the safest thing ever, but my dad says it works."

"Then why did he quit using it?" Oliver asked quickly. He tried to flip his hair out of his eyes. The sweat was starting to make it stick to his forehead.

"He doesn't really have the time anymore. Besides the company he works for has its own private gym for employees." Joanie shrugged and pushed another section into place. "Can you put those weights across the back?" She gestured to a few squares of metal sitting in the corner of the floor.

"Sure." Oliver smiled and moved to pick them up, but was surprised by how heavy they were.

As soon as he straightened up one of the weights slid from his grasp, landing with a loud thunk on the garage floor. Oliver yelped, not expecting it to make that much noise, and when he jumped a little, the other weights in his hands slid from them and collided with the gym they had just spent the last forty minutes putting together. One of the metal bars fell to the side and the pulley system collapsed. Oliver tried to look apologetic, but Joanie started laughing.

Turning to pick up one of the metal pieces from the floor Oliver heard the words, "I love you," come out between giggles and he froze.

Did she just? Cause he thought she did. But Joanie just kept giggling to herself and trying to put the pieces of her dad's home gym back together. Well, now the question was, should he? Cause he had no idea if he should, but she had so maybe...

"I love… cake!" The words flew out of his mouth a few minutes later. He had no idea where they came from.

"Um, ok. Good to know," Joanie told him, but she was still giggling.

She must not have realized what she said. That was it. They had been together for a while now, but they had never actually said… had they? No. He would have remembered that.

***

"You told her you love cake?" Miley Stewart clucked in disapproval from the chair in her living room, tucking a strand of her brown hair behind her ear. Oliver was sitting on her couch that evening, his head in his hands, not wanting to look his two friends in the eyes when he recounted the story.

"I didn't know what else to say!" Oliver protested, bringing his hands down and leaning back in to the cushions. He heard a chuckle come from the other end of the couch as Lilly took her seat next to him. She placed her bottle of water on the table.

"Come on Miley, we know Oliver's always loved cake more than girls." Lilly said sarcastically as she patted his shoulder.

"Lilly!" Miley scolded. "This is serious!"

Lilly sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine. What happened next?"

"Nothing," Oliver said, still not looking at her, keeping his head turned in Miley's direction. He knew that as much as Lilly tried to put up with Joanie, she still held a grudge for all the misery Joanie had caused her. "We just finished putting the thing together and I went home."

"But what did she say?" Miley pressed.

"We just talked about the marathon she wants to start training for and that English paper she's working on." He shrugged, watching the expression on Miley's face turn to confusion.

"She didn't say anything about the love thing?"

"Nope."

"Huh," Lilly mused, "that's weird." One of her hands reached up and absentmindedly twirled her hair around her fingers.

"Maybe she didn't realize she said it, you know. Maybe she didn't notice that I didn't say it back." He was nodding his head enthusiastically now when he looked at Lilly for support. She bit her lip and looked down, placing her hands back in her lap.

"No way," Miley told him. "She's a girl. She noticed."

Oliver raised his eyebrows at Lilly and she nodded.

"Well, what am I supposed to do now?" Oliver threw his arms into the air and jumped off the couch. He started pacing in front of the table.

Miley and Lilly exchanged alarmed looks.

"Well, you should probably tell her how you feel," Miley encouraged him.

"I did!"

"Oliver," Lilly tried, "you told her you love cake." She leaned forward, her elbows on her knees now and watched him pace. He looked like he was about to pass out and she was getting a little worried.

"Well, I do. Love cake." Oliver's eyes met Lilly's and he stopped pacing.

"Ookay." Miley got to her feet, the bracelets on her wrist jangling as she pulled on Oliver's arm and led him back to the couch.

When his weight settled in to the cushions at the other end, Lilly pulled her feet up and assumed the lotus position. This whole thing was weird. Talks with Miley about stuff like this were routine, but not Oliver. Miley sat on the coffee table in front of them and drew a breath.

"Oliver," Miley asked him, trying to get him to focus, "you guys have been dating a few months now. Do you love her?"

"I… um, well…"

Lilly watched his face while he tried to answer the question, picking at the nail polish on her fingers without even noticing what she was doing, a really big part of her waiting for him to say no.

"Come on boy, it's not that hard of a question. It's not like she's gonna jump out from behind the couch when you tell us the answer," Miley said.

At that, Oliver fearfully glanced over his shoulder and Lilly started laughing.

"Right," he said after shooting a look at Lilly. "I don't know," he finally told them. "I mean, I like her, a lot." He shrugged helplessly.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Miley burst out. "Didn't you try to give up meat for her? Before she ever even kissed you. You said you did that for love!"

"Bland, vegetarian love," Lilly muttered to herself.

"Well, yeah, I guess," Oliver agreed, scratching the back of his neck nervously.

"You're just afraid to say it to a girl." Miley pointed her finger at him accusingly.

"What? I say it all the time, you know to my mom and you guys." Oliver's protest was unconvincing though.

"That's different. Do I need to go through my 'love you like a brother or a pet fish' thing again?" Miley raised her eyebrows at him.

"No." Oliver rolled his eyes and heaved a dramatic sigh. "I get it."

The three of them sat there awkwardly for a second, nobody really knowing what to say next. Even with all of her serial dating, Miley had never had this particular problem.

"You guys have fun sorting this out." Lilly stood up and stretched. "I'm just gonna head home, since you know, Miley has more practice with the whole love thing anyway." She turned to head for the door, but the girl with more practice grabbed her arm and stopped her from going anywhere.

"That's it!" she shouted triumphantly. "You'll practice." She grinned at Oliver.

"What?" he asked flatly.

Miley pulled Lilly back down on to the couch and faced Oliver. "Pretend Lilly's Joanie."

"What?" Lilly's voice was much sharper than Oliver's had been. She glared at the girl who was supposed to be her best friend. "How does that help him?"

"He can practice telling you. Then, he'll know what to say to Joanie."

"Why can't he practice on you?" Lilly asked crossly.

"Because I'm going to watch and tell him what he's doing wrong."

"What makes you think I'm going to do something wrong?" Oliver asked.

"You told her you love cake!" Miley reminded him. He groaned in response, but he and Lilly made no move to start his practicing. "Come on, face each other. You have to look her in the eye when you tell her." Miley pulled on Oliver's arm, trying to get him to turn to his left.

Lilly shook her head, but she again brought her legs into the lotus position and turned to face Oliver on the couch. Oliver turned his upper body toward her and found Lilly staring at the hands she had braced on her knees. Now the silence was more than just awkward, but neither of them said anything, until Lilly suddenly turned to Miley.

"Wait, he can't just spring it on her. What are they doing? Like, are they at dinner, at the beach, what? He's not going to just grab her, tell her to sit down, and then say he loves her." Lilly stared at Miley, waiting for her to come up with a solution.

"She's right," Miley directed her own attention to Oliver, "so what are you doing?"

"Uh, we're supposed to study for a history test tomorrow?" Oliver looked back and forth between the two of them.

"What?" Lilly smacked him in the arm. "What are you gonna do? Say, hey Joanie, when did women get the right to vote, and man, I love that women can vote now. Speaking of love, I think I love you." She said it all in one breath, glaring at him the whole time.

Miley's eyes widened. She had not been prepared for Lilly to have quite this strong of a reaction to the role playing. Maybe Lilly being Joanie's stand in was not such a good idea after all.

"That's pretty good. Can I use that?" Oliver joked, then winced when Lilly hit him in the arm again.

"Ugh. It was an example, you doughnut. Women's lib isn't even on the history test." Lilly crossed her arms and balled her fists. She was afraid she would hit him again if she left her hands free. "What are you gonna do?" She repeated her earlier question, trying hard to not be angry with him. Oliver had never been able to help that he was an idiot. Besides, she knew she was not angry that he was unable to say it to Joanie. She was angry for a completely different reason, but she was not about to let him and Miley know that.

"I don't know. Let me think." Oliver glared at her now too. "Miley," he asked, "what do you think I should do?"

Lilly and Oliver both turned to look at their friend who was still perched on the edge of the table.

"Um, well. You should probably wait until after you've been studying for a while before you say anything…" she started, but she was cut off by Lilly.

"No way. If you wait too long, you'll psych yourself out. Just like when you learn new tricks. The longer you take to get off the ramp, the more you lose your nerve." Lilly always did know Oliver better than Miley did.

"So, as soon as I let her in the house, I should just say hey, the studying can wait cause I think I love you?" Oliver asked Lilly incredulously.

"Well, obviously not just like that. It makes you sound like you just want to make out with her." Lilly rolled her eyes at him again. "And you can't say think. It makes you sound like you don't know how you feel." There was an edge to her voice letting him know that he obviously did not know how he felt.

"You said think!" he protested. He was getting sick of Lilly making this whole thing so difficult. He felt embarrassed enough as it was.

"It was just an example!" she snapped.

"So was mine," he argued.

"This is so not gonna work," Miley muttered.

"What?" Lilly and Oliver asked in unison, both glaring at one another again.

"Obviously you can't practice this." Miley shook her head when Oliver and Lilly broke their stare down to glance at her.

"You just said he needed to practice so he would be able to talk to her!" Lilly growled.

"Talking to her!" Miley looked as though she was having a "light bulb" moment. "Of course. He has to work his way up to it."

Oliver leaned a little bit closer to Lilly, forgetting that he had just been arguing with her and whispered, "What is she talking about?"

"I'm not sure," she informed him out of the corner of her mouth.

"Guys!" Miley laughed at them. "What are the things you love about Joanie?" she asked Oliver.

"She's pretty, smart…" He said the words haltingly, not really knowing where this was going.

"Tell her," Miley instructed him, pointing to Lilly.

"Oh, I see." Lilly nodded her head. "Miley wants you to say everything you love about Joanie first. She thinks that will get you to say that you love her," she explained since Oliver still looked confused.

"Ohhh." He nodded as well and they turned to face one another again. He remained silent for a second though, apparently thinking.

"So…." Lilly waited for him to say something, then she smiled slightly. She noticed he was just as uncomfortable with the situation as she was, so she decided it was time for her to not be so difficult. Oliver was always there for her when she needed him, after all. "I'm Joanie... what do you love about me?" She leaned forward, trying to make this easier for him, and Miley giggled.

"Ok, well, you're really pretty." Oliver smiled when Lilly's cheeks turned a little pink. "Um… and you're really smart." Lilly propped her chin up with one of her hands and raised her eyebrows when he paused.

"That's it?" she asked him. Miley groaned from the table.

"No, I'm not done." Oliver sighed and brought his legs up to mirror Lilly's position.

He appeared to think again and Lilly considered suggesting a few things, but then thought better of it. She tried to wait patiently, but that had never been her strong suit. Miley was fidgeting over on the coffee table, and that might have been messing with Oliver's concentration a little too.

"I like that you don't take anybody's crap," he finally said. "When people piss you off, you tell them."

Oliver closed his eyes for a second to gather his thoughts when Lilly smiled again. She was too distracting. It would have been so much easier to do this with Miley. He tried to remember things that Joanie did that he liked, but he was drawing a blank. This was not good. He opened his eyes to find Lilly waiting expectantly again.

"And you laugh at all my jokes, even the ones that I know aren't funny."

All three of them chuckled at that.

"I like that you made an effort to get along with someone you hated for me. Oh, and I love that you aren't worried about breaking a nail when we hang out. You always just say you'll file them down later. You understand all of my skateboarding and surfing talk."

He saw Miley nodding her head out of the corner of his eye, but he focused on Lilly's eyes instead. The ones that were pretending to be Joanie. One problem though. Lilly's eyes were blue, not green. He swallowed, struggling to think of something else to say. He thought about telling her he loved her hair, but he really loved Lilly's hair, so he figured that would not be the appropriate route.

Miley opened her mouth to say something, but Lilly beat her to it. She straightened up, her hands again braced on her knees.

"What else?" she asked him softly.

"Um…" Oliver's mouth went dry, but he cleared his throat and kept going. "I love… that you like the same movies as me. Even the stupid ones. My mom loves you. And, my little brother thinks you're the best girl ever."

He laughed a little to himself now and Lilly sat as still as a statue.

"I love that even though you try to eat healthy, you always put extra sugar in your cereal. Your eyes get all sparkly when you laugh. And I love that you like watching hockey and wrestling. I just…" Oliver paused again. Lilly's eyes were wide and she was practically holding her breath now. "I love you."

A few seconds went by before Lilly broke eye contact and looked down at her hands. Her nails were digging in to the fabric of her jeans. She let out a breath and forced herself to relax.

"Now you're ready!" Miley exclaimed from the table, clapping her hands. "I am a genius." She failed to notice how Lilly and Oliver jumped a little at her outburst.

Oliver shook his head as if to clear it and turned to her, unsmiling. "Yeah, thanks."

Lilly nodded her head in agreement. "Yep, you should do just fine," she told Oliver quietly, not looking at him. She pushed the thought from her mind that there was the possibility that the things Oliver just said applied to her. She was not his girlfriend. She was his friend. His best friend. And she was happy for him.

When he was walking home later that night, Oliver knew two things for sure. His little brother hated his girlfriend, and Joanie did not put extra sugar on her cereal. There was only one girl he had ever cared about more than cake, and it wasn't Joanie. There was just nothing he could do about it, not yet.


End file.
